Here's the Polar Opposite of a Smart Watch

Magnets are rare earth miracles that befuddle Juggalos and keep Junior's drawings firmly stuck to the fridge. But in the hands of South Korean designer Jaemin Jaeminlee they're fodder for a charming watch design. His Gravitistic watch features a magnet under minute hand that circles a ring of hinged metal strips, forcing them to follow in its path. This clumping of the metal pieces provides its owner with a fuzzier but almost more poetic sense of time.

"There are many people wearing watches while carrying mobile phones," says Jaeminlee. "They check the time with their mobile phones, but people forget the original role of watch, and wear it as a fashion. I would like to make people realize the importance of their time which is passing even now. I want it as a role of meaning conveyance device, wile at the same time keeping the traditional form of watch."

The design philosophy of the Gravitistic watch is the polar opposite of that embodied by the Pebble watch which turns the wrist into one more surface for status messages to appear and multi-tasking to occur. Its minimal lines would fit into a MOMA exhibit perfectly, but it's true functionality is closer to that of a memento mori. "I hope people can feel the preciousness of the time when they check the time by this watch." says Jaeminlee. Digital smart watches paradoxically wind up their wearers while the Gravitistic watch attempts to dial things back into a more contemplative state.

X-Men

villain to rock this look.

Sadly, this tip top timepiece doesn't exist outside of CAD models and Keyshot renderings, yet. Jaeminlee is hard at work refining the design for manufacturability and has been busy contacting watch makers who might want to produce it. He has also experimented with more ambitious concepts like pulling hidden numbers into view when the magnet approached, but shelved the concept citing mechanical challenges. His current goal is to tune some of the technical aspects, like the strength of the magnet, for maximum impact. "The location and the strength of the magnet should be reset so that the gathering of the units of time would look great from an aesthetic standpoint." says Jaeminlee.

In the meantime, we can merely count the moments until its release and watch the progress on Jaeminlee's website.